Another Villain
by ClockWork96
Summary: What would have happened if the group chosen to go attend Auradon Prep was of five villain's kids, instead of four? Things would have gone in a different way if, along with Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos, there was Richard, son of Ursula and Carlos' boyfriend. Rated T for future chapters (and because I'd rather exagerate than keep the rating low and get the story removed). Carlos/OC
1. Chapter 1: Away from the Isle of the Los

**Author's note:** This is my first fanfiction, so tell me what you think about it with many reviews :) English isn't my native language (I'm Italian), so if you find grammar errors, or wrong expressions, or anything that I could have got wrong, please just tell me, and I will correct it ;) Thank you :D

 **Author's note 2:** About the age of the characters, they're two years older than they are in the movie (which means that Mal, Evie, Jay and Ben are 18 and Carlos is 16), because I needed Carlos and Richard (my OC) to be in a relationship at least a few years long, and I didn't want Carlos to be excessively young when they got together.

Chapter 1: Away from the Isle of the Lost

While Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos were on the Isle causing chaos, another kid watched them disappointed through the lenses of his glasses; he was about their age, 18 years old, a tall boy with shoulder-long black hair collected into a ponytail, apart for a tiny braid falling down from the back of the head to the broad chest. His clothes highlighted his muscular physique, the black skinny jeans perfectly adhering to his thighs and the violet shirt encircling his slim torso and sharpening his strong arms. A black leather shoulder bag perfectly completed the outfit. As soon as the other finally ended their showing off, concluded stealing a lollipop from a little baby, he moved to them with an angry look:

"You should really stop doing this… Life here on the island is already difficult, you really don't need to worsen the situation going around stealing things and disturbing other people… I already told you, what if someone started doing to you what you do to them?"

Mal's reply was the same as always: "They wouldn't dare… We're the descendants of the most feared villains, nobody is reckless enough to try doing something to us!"

"She's right, sweetie; besides, we're just having fun" said Carlos getting more close and starting to play with Richard's hair, knowing that this was going to calm him down.

He started to insist, "Still, you should try to find a different way to have fun…" but he stopped when he noticed the crowd that took part in his friend's "fun" running away. The group immediately understood what was happening, and in fact Mal turned around to greet Maleficent:

"Hi, mum!"

As always, the mistress of all evil was surrounded by those she liked to call "her henchmen", a group of big men even more stupid than they looked, with a constant blank stare, waiting for someone brain-gifted to give them an order. She, in the center, still as evil as she was before the exile on the Isle, with a glimpse of craziness caused by the long confinement, approaching her daughter:

"Stealing candy, Mal? I'm so disappointed!"

"It was from a baby!" Mal was trying to get her mother's approval, as always.

"That's my nasty little girl!" said Maleficent, grabbing the lollipop and spitting on it under the dazed look of the five teens, then proceeding to order to a henchman to give it back to the little child. She then went on trying to teach Mal to be truly evil, but Richard wasn't listening, he intentionally got distracted, starting to play with Carlos' short, white, marvelous hair; he fell in love with that hair the very first time he saw that boy, but he couldn't understand the feeling yet, he was only 9. At that time he only knew that he wanted to spend some time with that kid and his friends, and so he did: one day, while they were at school, he went there and introduced himself, despite what the other kids said of them. They acted like a little exclusive club, but it didn't take a lot of time to him to enter, and probably the fact that he was Ursula's son helped, to the point that in less than a month he was part of the group as much as the other... And then, after many years in which he managed to understand and accept his sexuality, his being gay, and to come out, for Richard's sixteenth birthday Carlos did something marvelous: he came out too, and asked him out. His birthday present, offered by all of his friends, was a date with Carlos in the less decaying pub on the Isle. He was absorbed in these memories when Maleficent shouted:

"There's news! You five have been chosen to go to a different school, in Auradon!"

Richard wasn't sure if she was serious, but was still amazed by the possibility: he would have loved to finally leave the Isle of the Lost and have a real life, eating real food! His friends didn't seem to be as happy as he was, they were all staring at her both scared and disgusted.

"What?! I'm not going to some boarding school filled to the brim with prissy pink princesses," was Mal's first reaction

"… and perfect princes!" added Evie, gaining Mal's exasperated look. Jay added:

"Yeah, I don't do uniforms, unless it's leather, you feel me?" expecting Carlos to high-five him, only to find Carlos' terrified look.

"I read somewhere that they allow dogs in Auradon. Mum says that they're rabid pack animals that eat boys who don't behave," he said, while Jay sneaked behind him imitating a dog bark, scaring the younger boy. Richard moved in to defend his boyfriend:

"Jay, let him live, please. I heard that they're not that bad. Actually, some people keep dogs as pets, and none of them has been eaten." Then, speaking also with the others:

"I think we should go! Maybe life outside isn't that bad. Maybe it's even better than the life here! There are surely prissy pink princesses, but even more surely there is fresh food, lots of chocolate, and definitely magic! After all, if we end up not liking life there we just need to do something bad to get back on the Isle in the blink of an eye. What do you say?"

"Actually, you have nothing to say about it. You should all surrender to the fact that you're going. Getting angry is useless, it's a royal proclamation, so you don't have the chance to discuss it. Besides, you're thinking small, kiddos… It's all about world domination! You'll be picked up from my house in less than two hours, so go prepare your luggage and don't be late! Mal, come with me!" Maleficent left, walking towards her home, gesturing for Mal to follow her

"I'm, coming mum… See you later guys," was all Mal could say, before being surrounded by her mother's henchmen.

"We'd better go too, we don't have much time before the appointment. Bye, guys!" said Richard, kissing his boyfriend and waving to his friends. His house was quite distant from the other's: they lived facing the central square of the Isle, while his mum, when given the choice, preferred a house on the edge, near the barrier, and near the sea. When he got in, he found her standing, her eyes filled with joyful tears:

"Have you heard the news? You're going to Auradon!"

Ursula was the villain that changed the most: after the failure of her plan involving Ariel to get King Triton's trident, she was thrown in jail, where she stayed for the three years that passed before Belle and Beast's wedding. In this time, she grew aware of the bad and trouble she caused, starting to question her motives, and ending up asking King Triton to be turned into a human before being exiled on the Isle of the Lost. In a moment of pity, the King agreed, knowing that she was going to lose her powers once inside the barrier, never being able to regain her original form. Now she was a beautiful woman, apparently younger than all the other villains, and passed on this beauty to her son.

"Yes, Maleficent informed us. I'm so happy, mum! Finally, I'll get out of this infernal cage! I'm sorry that you can't come with us…"

"I already told you: I am as guilty as the others, my actions caused troubles for many people. I actually deserve to be closed here. You, on the other hand, my dear, are innocent; you should be outside, living your life as a normal person. You kids are not villains! You can decide what to do, if you want to be good or bad, but you have to decide on your own. Probably Maleficent will make up something, some plan, to break the barrier with your help, freeing us and bringing back chaos to Auradon, but I want you to decide what you want to do. Don't let her, or anybody else, tell you how to behave, and listen to your heart, it will always know what's the right thing to do!"

Richard hugged her, then started packing up all his things and clothes, managing to put everything in two suitcases and his shoulder bag.

"Before you go, take this" said Ursula when he was ready, handing him a little notebook with a violet cover "It's my notebook. I spent the last few years writing down all the spells and potion recipes that I knew back in the days. I don't know if you'll need it, but if you will, you'll have it with you. Now go, don't be late to the appointment!"

The boy put the notebook in his bag, hugged his mother and kissed her cheek one last time, then grabbed his luggage and left, directed to Maleficent's house. As expected, the others were already there, living in the same neighbourhood, waiting for the royal limousine that would take them out of the island they called home for their whole lives. There were also their parents, the great villains: Jafar, Jay's father, declined from feared Vizier to trader of stolen (usually by Jay) goods; the Evil Queen, Evie's mother, once the terror of those who met her glance, now disfigured by her pursuit of beauty through plastic surgery; Cruella de Vil, Carlos' mother, still hoping, after all that time, to be able to wear some dalmatians at least as gloves, not due to her fashion sense, but to her thirst for revenge; and Maleficent, perfect hostess of the house in which the four old allies had met for the last twenty years.

"Finally you're here too!" was Maleficent's greeting.

"How's Ursula?" asked the Queen with false concern, to which Richard answered:

"My mum's fine, thank you."

He then put his luggage near the other's, in a corner, and moved near Carlos, Jay, Mal and Evie near Maleficent's throne, while she started speaking:

"Very well! Now that you're all here, let's see if we can get something useful from your trip outside the Isle. As soon as you get in Auradon, you will find the Fairy Godmother and you will bring me her wand. Easy peasy!"

"And what's in it for us?" was Mal's first reaction to the plan.

"Matching thrones, hers-and-hers crowns," answered Maleficent; Carlos then intervened:

"Um, I think she meant us" gesturing towards his friends. Maleficent, with a malevolent expression on her face, signed for Mal to get near her:

"It's all about you and me, baby"

Knowing how the affair would develop, and that it was a lost battle to argue with Mal's mother, Richard decided to distract, letting his mind flow, like he learned to do in the past years. Being friends with Maleficent's daughter had always meant being present when the evil fairy tried to include Mal in her crazy plans for world domination, so he knew that the girl was going to give up at the end, probably after losing the concentration during that weird trick, a sort of staring contest with Maleficent. Richard never understood how they could do it, it surely wasn't magic…

He was brought back to reality when Cruella spoke; he knew that Carlos was little more than a servant to her, and in fact he tried to spend the most time he could with his boyfriend also to pull him out of her clutches, so he rolled his eyes when she said that Carlos wasn't going anywhere because she would miss him too much.

"Really, mum?" was Carlos' surprised reaction.

"Yes. Who would touch up my roots, fluff my fur, and scrape the bunions off my feet?" was the predictable answer, that made Carlos bitter:

"Yeah, maybe a new school wouldn't be the worst thing…"

It was clear that she was going to add something, but Richard's hateful glare stopped her, while he hugged Carlos from behind:

"You'll see! I'm sure that in Auradon no one will ask you to scrape the bunions off their feet" he whispered to him, making a smile appear on the younger boy's face.

The sight of the two boys embraced made Cruella look away disgusted; she never accepted that her son was gay, and she never even tried to like Richard and his positive influence on Carlos.

"I wish my mum was like yours," commented the young de Vil in a whisper, "Ursula is fantastic… She loves me more than my mum ever did… And don't try denying it, you know it's true."

While they spoke, they moved in a corner, isolating from the others.

"Well, it's true that your mum is not the perfect mother, but you know that there will always be, at least here on the Isle, a bed and some brownies for you, the only thing you have to do is knock at the door of the little blue house on the edge of the Isle. I already told you, my mum was shocked when I told her about your parents, yours and of the others, so she took it as personal responsibility to make you feel what it means to be loved." With a smile, Carlos told him:

"I know, and she was fantastic! Since the first time you invited us to your place…"

"The safe, the safe!" They were interrupted by Maleficent, shouting loudly while she approached the "safe", actually a refrigerator of which she never learned the function, mistaking it for a strongbox. While the two sweethearts were talking, Evie had received from her mother the last piece of the Queen's shattered magic mirror, which would help the group to find things, and now Maleficent was going to give her daughter her own help: after Evie's mum helped her to open the "safe", the dark fairy took her spell book out of it, and gave it to Mal in a rush of nostalgia:

"There she is! It doesn't work here, but it will in Auradon… Remember?" she now addressed the Queen, "When we were spreading evil and ruining lives…"

"Like it was yesterday" was the Queen's equally nostalgic reply; then Maleficent looked at her daughter:

"And now you will be making your own memories, by doing exactly as I tell you!"

As soon as the door of the fridge was closed, a honk was heard, signalling that the royal limousine had arrived to take the villain kids to their new school, and possibly new lives. The five descendants picked up their suitcases and headed downstairs, finding an even bigger car than they thought waiting them, with the driver standing near it, ready to help them to put the luggages in the truck. Richard was amazed, to the point that he missed the evil glance that Maleficent directed to Mal, a glance full of expectation, with the precise purpose to make the girl feel the whole weight of the mission she and her friends were assigned.

They got in the car, finding themselves in front of the greatest amount of sweets they had ever seen: right under their eyes, jars and boxes full of candies, chocolate cookies, cakes, and many other things. Carlos and Jay, unable to resist the temptation, started catching handfuls of everything they could grasp, filling their mouths of all those incredible foods.

"Sweetie, try to control yourself" was the only thing that Richard managed to say, still too late, before seeing his boyfriend's face covered in chocolate.

"You know me, I can't resist the chocolate's call!" was Carlos' reply. Rolling his eyes, the older villain reached for his bag, pulled out one of the handkerchiefs that he kept there, and gave it to the younger:

"Keep this, and try not to present yourself to whoever is waiting for us covered in chocolate"

In the meantime, the girls, after taking only a few candies each, had started looking around, until they found a remote; after pressing a button, the window that divided them from the driver opened, and a frightened Evie shouted:

"Look!" They were approaching the edge of the Isle, and the group started panicking.

"It's a trap!" shouted Carlos, pressing against his boyfriend's chest, finding it calm and reassuring. In fact, out of the five, Richard was the only perfectly calm. Maybe because the sea was his mother's element, or maybe because the thought that it couldn't possibly be a trap was glued to his subconscious, the son of Ursula wasn't even slightly worried; his calm revealed to be the right attitude: as soon as the car moved over the edge, a powerful light surrounded it, and they had the impression of moving through the air, levitating above the water.

"What just happened?" was Carlos' confused reaction at being still alive and dry; the five kids watched through the rear window, and saw the marvelous bridge that just appeared, which seemed to be made of pixie dust (or of something resembling the villains' idea of pixie dust), connecting the Isle of the Lost to the mainland.

"It must be magic!" said Evie, smiling with excitement; Mal turned to speak to the driver:

"Ehy! Did this little button," she said, pointing at the button she pressed on the remote, "just open up the magic barrier?" The driver raised his right hand, showing a smaller remote with a single golden key, and said:

"No. This one opens the magic barrier. That on opens my garage. And this button…" he didn't finish the sentence, leaving the evidence to speak, and pressed a button above his head, that closed the divider.

"Nasty… I like that guy!" was Mal's only comment, before going back to her handful of candies.

The trip wasn't long, but they still had some time before getting at their destination, so Carlos asked Richard:

"How did you stay calm before? You couldn't know that a bridge would appear, but you weren't freaking out like us…"

"I don't know. Maybe I was just hoping it not to be a trap, but I think that being the son of the sea witch I was subconsciously sure that the sea wouldn't hurt me…"

"If that's the case, tell your subconscious to care also for us, not related to sea witches or anything," replied the younger boy with a mocking offended face, making the whole group laugh.


	2. Chapter 2: Auradon Prep

**Author's note:** Since I wanted the story to last longer (for the characters) than it does in the movie, I decided to make it school year long: it begins in September (they arrive at Auradon Prep the day before school starts), and the Coronation is in May. It follows that everything is more stretched, but I want to add other events, so the gaps will be filled

Chapter 2: Auradon Prep

Less than an hour after their departure from the Isle of the Lost, the five friends noticed the car stopping, while they were hearing something similar to a band playing a hymn.

"Tell me they're not playing for us, please," was Mal's first reaction; immediately denied by the evidence: as soon as the driver opened their door, the band started playing even more solemnly than before. Mal was nauseated:

"Yup, they are… I can't believe it…". Richard struggled not to let show that he was thinking the same:

"Oh, come on, they're welcoming us!" was all he managed to say keeping a smile printed on his face, only to shut up, keeping his concentration on faking the happy expression in the best way possible. He wanted to make a good impression, knowing that this was his only chance to have a real life in Auradon, so he didn't want to give away the impression that the group didn't like their welcome. He didn't need to fake the smile for long, though, noticing a guy, nearly as beautiful as Carlos, standing straight in front of them, hand in hand with the perfect example of prissy pink princess, near a woman in a light blue dress, all three displaying perfect white smiles. Still, the only one actually happy was evidently the boy, while the girl was hiding (not so well) her plain disgust, and the woman seemed concerned, in some way, for something.

Richard was so absorbed in these thoughts that he failed to stop Jay from approaching the girl and introducing himself in a flirtatious way:

"Hello foxy! The name's Jay". The girl looked shocked, and apparently only managed to laugh, before the woman intervened, trying to smoother the situation:

"Welcome to Auradon Prep! I'm Fairy Godmother, headmistress". She introduced herself with a little bow; on Mal's face, Richard saw the usual spark, meaning "things are going better than expected", and instantly knew that she was going to catch the occasion and, possibly, proceed with Maleficent's plan. She put on her best astonished face and said:

" _The_ Fairy Godmother? As in 'Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo'?"

"Bibbidi-Bobbidi, you know it!" replied the headmistress. Mal continued:

"Yeah, I've always wondered what it felt like for Cinderella when you appeared out of nowhere, with that sparkling wand and warm smile… And sparkling wand…" She insisted on the last word, trying to lead the conversation to that matter, without success; failing completely to catch the hint, the Fairy Godmother proceeded:

"Oh, that was a long time ago. As I always say, don't focus on the past or you'll miss the future". While she said it, she mimicked every word of the maxim making the others fall in an embarrassed silence, which was broken by the boy introducing with a fantastic smile to the five guests:

"It's so good to finally meet you all! I'm Prince Benjamin, but in informal occasions you can call me Ben. This is Audrey, my girlfriend…" He was interrupted by the girl:

"… _Princess_ Audrey, I'm Aurora and Philip's daughter." The Fairy Godmother gave the last instructions before turning around and getting inside:

"Ben and Audrey are going to show you all around, and I'll see you tomorrow. The doors of wisdom are never shut! But the library hours are from 8:00 to 11:00, and as you may have heard, I have a little thing about curfews."

When the headmistress left, the Prince moved to shake hands with the five kids in front of him, while making what was evidently a prepared speech meant to sound spontaneous:

"It's so, so, so good to meet you all!" he had the bad luck to start from Jay, who didn't shake the hand, but benevolently punched him on the chest, making Richard shudder, "this is a momentous occasion and one that I hope will go down in history as the day our two peoples begun to heal."

The speech received weirded looks from the five villains, and Mal expressed what they were all thinking:

"Or the day that you showed five peoples where the bathrooms are." For an instant Richard was horrified by the idea that the girl had just insulted the Prince of Auradon, but Ben didn't seem to care:

"A little bit over the top?"

"A little more than a little bit"

"Well, so much for my first impression." Ben was smiling, but Audrey was staring at the two with horrified eyes; trying to break the faint connection created by Mal's unrestrained personality and Ben's friendly attitude, she attempted to get Mal's attention away from her boyfriend:

"Hey! You're Maleficent's daughter, aren't you? You know what? I totally do not blame you for your mother trying to kill my parents and stuff."

Knowing that the reference to Maleficent's actions would embitter the situation, Richard hoped for Ben to stop the two girls from beating each other. In the meantime, he looked at the little crowd that welcomed them, and that was starting to disperse, since he wanted to know if their attitude was closer to Ben's or Audrey's one; he saw some reassuring glances, but was struck by a girl, probably younger than him, staring straight at the villain. The girl looked away immediately, and Richard managed to see only that she had long black hair before losing her in the crowd.

"Ok, so… How about a tour?" Apparently, the girls had finished their bickering, so Ben started leading the group towards the school, arm in arm with his girlfriend.

"Auradon Prep, originally built over 300 years ago and converted into a high school by my father when he became king." The group was approaching the entrance, passing near King Beast's statue; Ben clapped his hands, making the statue shape shift into the old beast form of the king. Due to his mum's predicaments, Carlos yelled seeing the giant animal take form under his eyes, and jumped towards his boyfriend, who tried to calm him down:

"Relax sweetie, it's only a statue." He put an arm around the younger's shoulders, assuming a defensive attitude, while Ben explained:

"Carlos, it's ok! My father wanted his statue to morph from beast to man to remind us that anything is possible."

"Does he shed much?" intervened Mal

"Yeah, mum won't let him on the couch…" answered Ben, exchanging a grin with her; Audrey was evidently trying to maintain a broad smile on her face, but anyone could see that she didn't like the prince's attitude towards the five newcomers, in particular towards that insolent purple haired girl. The couple turned around and entered the school, while Carlos, now calm, tried unsuccessfully to make the statue morph back.

"Maybe you need magic to do it, let's see…" suggested Richard, clapping his hands as well. The statue changed shape, getting back to its human appearance; following the others inside, Carlos mumbled:

"I didn't know Belle and Beast to be related to a wizard…" In the meantime, Mal, unaware of the little exchange between the two boys, had asked the prince if they had magic in Auradon.

"Yes, it exists of course, but it's pretty much retired. Most of us here are just ordinary mortals," answered Ben, making Richard think about the statue, and then about what a waste it was to have magic and not use it. Mal added, in a mocking way:

"Who happened to be kings and queens."

"That's true! Our royal blood goes back hundreds of years, right Bennyboo?" intervened Audrey, giggling with her boyfriend and trying to make evident her dislike for the five villains standing in front of her. Attempting to smooth once again the mood, Ben tried to change the subject, calling a boy dressed like a member of the band who was at the top of a flight of stairs:

"Doug! Doug, come down! This is Doug, he's going to help you with your class schedules and show you the rest of the dorms. I'll see you later, ok? And if there is anything you need, feel free to…" He was interrupted by his girlfriend:

"… ask Doug!" With a little laughter, she then grabbed Ben's arm and dragged him away; the prince clearly didn't like her reaction to the group of villains, but did nothing to stop her. Breaking the awkward silence that he was apparently unaware of, Doug said:

"Hi guys, I'm Dopey's son, as in Dopey, Doc, Bashful, Happy, Grumpy Sleepy… Heigh-ho!" he exclaimed, as Evie approached him, introducing herself, displaying all her beauty:

"Evie, Evil Queen's daughter." Trying to maintain a sort of professional behaviour, he went on explaining their schedules:

"About your classes, I discovered that our courses are surprisingly similar to the ones at Dragon Hall, so you won't have to struggle much to get on track; on top of that, we have lessons on Safety Rules for the Internet twice a week, and the headmistress want you to attend Remedial Goodness 101"

"I imagine that we won't meet many people in Remedial Goodness." commented Richard with a sarcastic grin. Doug nodded, admitting:

"No, it's a new class, no one really even knows what the Fairy Godmother wants to do… We'll see! Now come with me, so I'll show you the rooms and the cafeteria"

Guiding the five villains through the school, the boy showed them some classrooms and laboratories, making Carlos crack a smile when they entered the enormous computer lab: on the Isle of the Lost, he always showed a great attitude towards maths and informatics, but had been restrained by the horrible condition of life there; here, on the other hand, he had all the means to master those subjects. They saw also the cafeteria, a huge, crowded hall filled with tables that probably was once a throne room.

"Now we can enter freely, since the year hasn't begun yet, but from tomorrow, thanks to the Fairy Godmother's obsession with time, the cafeteria is opened from 12:00 to 13:30 for lunch, and from 19:30 to 21:00 for dinner. For the rest of the day it's as closed as empty, but you can still get in the kitchen and cook something for yourselves," explained Doug before gesturing the group to follow him. They got first to the girls' room, so they planned to meet there in an hour, and then they went on to the boys' one. It was very similar to Mal and Evie's: there were the beds, three wooden beds covered with silk sheets, each with near a bedside table, a big desk, wide enough to let them all use it at the same time, and three wardrobes. Entering, Richard noticed a fantastic new display connected to many different consoles, and he knew that also Carlos noticed it when he heard his boyfriend whistle in approval; on the same wall of the screen there was a door, that Doug said to lead to a bathroom. The boy then went away, letting the three villains unpack their luggages, closing the door behind his back.

"Well, people look definitely nicer here than on the Isle," commented Richard, opening his suitcases and starting to take out his clothes.

"Yeah, not all of them… That girl, Audrey, doesn't look that nice to me…" said Carlos

"You can't expect to like everyone, and you can't expect everyone to like you, honey. Just focus on those with whom you get along and ignore the others," answered the older, smiling warmly. Jay intervened with a determined look:

"Or you can make sure that they like you, like I'm planning to do with that foxy! Sooner or later she'll run away from that dude and fall right into my arms!" Richard, a little worried for what the Arabian kid would do, tried to convince him that it wasn't a good idea:

"Don't count on that, Jay… I don't want to break your heart, but I don't think she would ever date someone whose royal blood doesn't go 'back hundreds of years'!" He tried to use the same voice that the princess used some minutes before, making the boys burst out laughing, until they heard a knock on the door.

"Come in!" signalled Carlos; Ben entered the room, greeting the villains, while they were filling their wardrobes:

"Hey, guys! I and some others are going to dinner, do you want to join us?" This time Richard was quick enough to intercept and hush Jay:

"Yeah, it's fantastic! We arranged to meet the girls and go with them, is it alright if they come too?"

"Uh… Yeah, yeah, no problem!" The prince was obviously hoping for his girlfriend not to start a fight with Mal as she did before. The four boys left the room and went to call the two girls, finding them already waiting for them out of their door; when Ben told them that they were going to eat together, it was clear that Mal was already planning on a way to start bickering with Audrey, and that he just gave her the occasion. As soon as they entered the cafeteria, they heard a shout:

"Bennyboo, we're here!" It was Audrey, sitting at a table, along with Doug and other two kids; the group went to get their food, and then approached the table. Sitting down, the boy and the girl introduced to the villains as Chad Charming, son of Cinderella and Prince Charming, and Lonnie Li, daughter of Mulan and Shang, greeting them with what seemed to be genuine kindness. The dinner went on free from any problem, also thanks to Ben's struggle trying to keep Audrey from attacking Mal. Maleficent's daughter, on the contrary, apparently forgot her plan to bicker with the princess, in fact she didn't say, not even once, anything designed to offend her; after everyone finished eating, the villains returned to their rooms, saying goodbye to the others, and planning to meet again in a few minutes in the boy's room, requiring for Richard to explain to the girls how to get there. Hand in hand with his boyfriend, he then started to walk towards the room, knowing that sooner or later the others were going to start working on Maleficent's mission, and that when that happened he would have to decide on what side to stand.


	3. Chapter 3: Night at the Museum

**Author's Note:** I'm so sorry for posting the third chapter this late! I started going to university, and I've also started a new project, so I haven't had that much time to go on with this fanfiction… And probably future chapters will have the same delay. Please be patient and R&R :).

Chapter 3: Night at the Museum

"As soon as we get in our room, I'm going to turn on that display and start playing something on it!" said Carlos after they finished speaking with the girls; and so he did, discovering in the meantime that the games were a lot more advanced than they could even imagine on the Isle. He chose a first person fighter game, meant to be played through a couple of highly perceptive motion sensors, and started fighting. Richard stared at him for a few minutes, admiring his perfect physique, glad to finally see a smile of real happiness on the younger's face, then he took Ursula's notebook from his bag, and started walking towards his bed, freezing in the movement.

"Jay, where do all those things come from?" he asked to the other, who was putting on his bed a great amount of stuff, from smartphones to jewellery, and even a laptop.

"Oh, pockets, bags, necks, some arms…" was Jay's uncaring answer.

"You stole them?" Richard interrupted the other, trying not to shout.

"We may have one single occasion to get a real life, and you waste it like this?" Jay's reply made him even angrier:

"Well, maybe I actually want to get back to the Isle of the Lost, since it's my home, where I already have a life"

"It's your home so much that there you sleep on a rug under a shelf, and your life consists in spending your days stealing for your father! Here we have beds covered with silk sheets! At this school they're going to teach us something actually useful, that we can use to build our own lives!" Not able to hold back, he started to shout halfway through his little speech, causing Carlos to pause the game and get closer to the angry older boy, attempting to calm him:

"Richard, don't shout! Someone's going to hear you and worry something happened." He then faced Jay, who didn't even raise his eyes, "Jay, you have to admit that today hasn't been so bad… Let's see what happens once school begins before deciding that we want to go back. Besides, if our parents see us on the Isle without the Fairy Godmother's wand they're not going to be proud of us, if you know what I mean… What I'm trying to say is that it's better if we don't get caught doing bad things, at least before we've decided how to proceed… Ok?" While he was speaking he held his boyfriend hand, keeping his eyes locked on Jay's. After a few moments, the Arabian boy turned around, glaring at Richard one last time, and went back to sort out his loot; Richard considered trying again to change Jay's mind, but then decided that it would only anger Carlos, now back at his game, so he returned to his original plan: he laid on his bed and started reading through Ursula's notebook. When they heard knocking on the door after a few minutes, he invited the girls in:

"Come in, it's opened." Mal and Evie entered the room, locking the door behind them; while the half fairy started chatting with Jay about the things there were on his bed, the queen's daughter asked Richard about the violet book he was reading.

"Oh, it's my mum's copybook. She wrote down all the spells and potions she knew back in the days… There are lots of useful things in it" answered the boy.

"Isn't it similar to the book Maleficent gave Mal?"

"Well, yes, I guess so… Probably the spells and the recipes are different though, since my mum was the sea witch and Maleficent was a fairy living on a mountain, but the concept is the same." He was smiling at the girl, his anger for Jay completely forgotten. Mal caught the attention of the others clapping her hands:

"Alright! We've already lost enough time, let's see if we can find that wand. Evie, mirror me." She gestured for Evie to sit with her at the desk, while the blue haired girl took her mother's magic mirror out of her bag.

" _Magic mirror on the… in my hand, where is the Fairy Godmother's wand… stand?_ » Being the first time, she pronounced the formula clumsily, making her and the others worry that nothing would happen, but a smile formed on her face when a marvelous white wand covered in blue twirls appeared in the mirror's glass, making her exclaim:

"Here it is!"

"Zoom out!" Carlos, having paused his game, had approached the others.

" _Magic mirror, not so close_ " The request was perhaps too generic, and the mirror "zoomed out" more than she intended, showing now the whole planet, like a picture taken from space; Evie tried to remedy:

" _Closer… Closer… Closer…_ Perfect!"

"It's a museum! Do we know where it is?" asked Mal, while Carlos was already pushing keys on the laptop Jay stole; he found it in no time:

"2.3 miles from here!"

"Perfect, let's go!" exclaimed Mal, clearly satisfied that the plan was proceeding so easily.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Richard voice came from his bed, from which he never got up until now.

"You really want to screw up our only possibility to live a life making our own choices?" He wasn't shouting. He wasn't even angry. He was staring at Mal, trying to wordlessly beg her to stop, but she refused to give in to the silent plead:

"Richard, this is our one chance to prove ourselves to our parents. To prove that we are evil, and vicious, and ruthless, and cruel! I'm sorry, I know how you feel about these things, but we won't stop, right?" She turned around to look at all the others in the eyes, then returning to face Richard.

"You can choose to stay here, but don't try to drag us with you. Just don't. We want our parents to win, we want to rule the world with them. We have the occasion to make them proud, we won't waste it." The others were all ready to go to the museum, and Mal closed the jacket she was wearing, making sure to have the spell book inside a pocket, finishing her speech:

"So, are you coming with us?" Richard hesitated, and didn't answer, but, his heart heavier than a boulder, he stood up and placed his black bag on his shoulder, putting the notebook inside.

"Ok, now that we decided who's in, let's go!" Mal took the lead, opening the door and rushing outside, followed by the others; the rotting maze that was the Isle of the Lost had sharpened their sense of direction, so they managed to get out of their new school in no time; running through the straight road to the museum, no one said a word, silently thinking that maybe it was too easy, maybe the wand would be guarded, everyone concentrated on their part in Maleficent's plan except for Richard, still fighting inside his head and his heart, trying to decide if he did the right choice. At the museum, Evie guided the group towards the entrance, which they found to be also the security center: there was a man, surrounded by displays showing all the powerful objects that carved the history of Auradon, from King Triton's trident, to Shan Yu's sword, to the Fairy Godmother's wand. In the center of the room, the first exhibit: Maleficent's spinning wheel, filled to the brim with magic even after all those years had passed, but not everyone could perceive this:

"That's your mother's spinning wheel?" asked Jay laughing, while Carlos was chuckling besides him:

"Yeah, it's kinda dorky." Richard, feeling the strong evil energy radiating from the object, couldn't take his eyes off it, in a state of both strong admiration and fear. He told them:

"Guys, this is Maleficent's spinning wheel; she was going to kill a sixteen years old princess with this, and you are saying that it's dorky? Shut your mouths!" He turned to Mal, still admiring the spinning wheel, "Mal, it's your mother's, isn't there a spell that we can use to distract the guard? Just try not to kill him…»

The girl took the spell book from her pocket and started scrolling through it, "This book is full of crap… There's even a spell to change hairstyle… I can't find anything… Wait! Here it is!

 _Magic spindle, do not linger,_

 _Make my victim prick a finger._

 _Prick the finger, prick it deep,_

 _Send my enemy off asleep!_ "

As soon as she finished the spell, the short, lump security guard started to fall in a trance: he was unable to look away from the magical object, and started walking towards the needle; when he touched it, the old spell was revived, making him fall asleep almost instantly. A satisficed grin appeared on Mal's face:

"Not so dorky now, hun?" she was smiling to the boys, while grabbing the handle, finding that the door was locked.

"Stand back." Jay, wanting to show off, prepared to open it with brute force; Mal, ignoring him, used a spell she had seen scrolling the book:

" _Make it easy, make it quick_

 _Open up without a kick!_ "

The spell did its magic almost instantly, opening the door in the same moment that Jay jumped; he flew inside, crashing on the floor, while the girls were already getting in.

"Come on, Jay!" Richard was trying not to laugh while he helped the Arabian boy back to his feet.

"I'm good!" Jay frowned, following the others through the long corridor of the museum; Evie guided the group upstairs, following the mirrors' directions, until they found themselves in a room full of statues.

"Villain Gallery" read Carlos on the sign at the entrance of the room: the statues represented their parents, among all the other villains, at their most powerful moments: the vicious glares that scared people back in the days, now lost in the long isolation, were frozen in the wax that stood in front of the five. The most shocking statue was Ursula's: the name of the sweet, gentle, tall woman they all knew and loved was written under the statue of a half human half octopus witch, her tentacles positioned as if she was ready to grasp anything that got too near. The worst thing was the look in the eyes, an evil, crazy look, scary even in the reproduction; and still, Richard's eyes were able to catch the details that linked that horrible witch to his mother, like the colour of the irises, as grey as the dim light that reached into her den at the bottom of the ocean. The same den where she tricked all those mermaids and tritons into horrible contracts; where Ariel signed the contract to get a pair of legs in exchange for her voice. In that den, with that body, Ursula did all sorts of terrible things, and yet… Yet she became the dearest person on the island, showing love to those who didn't even know what it was. Richard's mum was the proof that you can cross the separation, you can change, stop being a villain. Was that separation even actually there? Ursula wasn't even the only one. Queen Elsa, the beloved queen of Arendelle, once was considered a threat to her people, but then turned her life around and unfroze her kingdom. Hadn't King Beast been a horrible person until he met Queen Belle? The statue in Auradon Prep garden still changed shape 'to remind us that anything's possible', but that was only for the heroes… A villain stays a villain… There's no way you can get out the Isle… But they were out; it meant that something had changed; maybe the new generation would accept them. Thinking about it, Ben was the one person that convinced the King that they deserved a chance, and maybe there were others of the same opinion…

While he was thinking, he never stopped staring at the statue, lost in his mind; in the meantime, the others had started searching around for the wand, involuntarily leaving him and Mal behind. When Carlos found the magical instrument, Evie went back to call the two, finding them still deep in thought:

"Mal, Richard! We found it! Come on!" They both shook their heads, waking up from their daydream, and followed her, finding themselves right in front of the wand, surrounded by a cone of blue light.

«We did it! Guys, we did it! It was almost too easy» commented Mal, too overwhelmed by satisfaction to notice that Jay was jumping towards the wand.

"Jay! Don't!" Richard tried stop the Arabian boy, but his hand was already centimetres from the wand. As soon as he reached the blue light, he was thrown back by the protection spell, while an alarm started ringing throughout the whole museum.

"An alarm and a force field? Isn't it a bit excessive?" wondered Carlos.

"Love, it's the Fairy Godmother's wand, did you expect anything less? Now let's go!" Richard darted out, following Mal towards the entrance of the old building. When they got there, the guard had disappeared, probably woken up by the alarm and trying to find the intruder. While the others were running out, Carlos stopped to answer a ringing phone.

"Uh, hello? Oh, just give me a second," tapping buttons on a screen, the young boy made the alarm stop. "Yeah, it was just a false alarm, there was a malfunction in the LM714 chip in the breadboard circuit. Okay. Say hi to the missus"

"Carlos!" As Mal called for him, the guard rushed back in the room, catching the white haired boy by an arm.

"What are you villains doing here? Were you trying to steal the Fairy's Godmother's wand? There are camera recordings, by tomorrow you'll be back on that Island!" The guard started shouting and threatening them, so Richard made up his mind and used magic, hoping for it to work:

" _Magic spindle, do not linger,_

 _Make my victim prick a finger._

 _Prick the finger, prick it deep,_

 _Send my enemy off asleep._ "

Again, the guard fell into a state of trance, being drawn to the pointy spindle, and again he fell asleep like before that night.

"Thank you, sweetie. He was starting to really hurt my arm…"

"Well, now we've got another problem. He's going to wake up sooner or later, what do we do then? We can't go back to the Isle without the wand, my mum will skin us alive," said Mal, staring at the sleeping man.

"I'm already thinking about that," replied Richard, scrolling through the violet notebook, "I was reading the spells before, and I found exactly what we need now… Here it is:

 _This man's memory poses me a threat_

 _The intrusion I want him to forget._

 _Delete the recordings, minutes and such,_

 _From this event loosen reality's clutch.  
_

With this his memory should be gone, along with the cameras' recordings and any other proof we may have let behind. Now let's go back to Auradon Prep"

"Way to go Jay, now we have to go to school tomorrow…" commented Mal bitterly.

Once they smuggled back into their respective rooms, they all got ready to go to bed; after the evening's events, Richard and Carlos decided to share a bed, sleeping together, hugging and cuddling, until they both fell asleep. Richard's last thoughts before a troubling night of upsetting dreams were about his mum, and all the distance she had gone from the statue they saw in the museum. He hoped to, perhaps, manage to draw his friend away from their malevolent parents. In some way, he would need to think about this, he was going to make them understand that Ursula's words were not empty. She, and Richard as well, really hoped for them to make their own choices, even if they were bad, but their indeed. After this series of last thoughts before sleep, Richard entered the realm of dreams, reflexively keeping Carlos as near as possible, the younger's head resting under his neck, with a hand on each other's hearts.


End file.
